Stroudsburg football coach Joe Bernard resigns to take job in Myrtle Beach

Monday

Apr 22, 2013 at 11:32 AMApr 22, 2013 at 11:34 AM

MIKE KUHNS

STROUDSBURG — With a little more than two years on the job as Stroudsburg’s football coach, Joe Bernard has submitted his resignation.

The Mounties’ coach was hired in February 2011 but furloughed as a junior high school math teacher after the 2011-12 school year. He has not worked in the classroom since.

“There’s no question, I am sad,” said Bernard, who next year is taking an assistant coaching job and teaching job at Carolina Forest High School in Myrtle Beach, S.C. “It’s something that I didn’t want to do. I planned on being here when I took the job two years ago.”

Bernard, 49, said he planned to teach and coach at Stroudsburg until he retired but he lost his teaching job after one year.

During the 2012-13 school year, Bernard said he collected unemployment while continuing to coach football. He said he plans to leave for Myrtle Beach on Wednesday.

“I understand his decision to leave, I fully understand that,” Stroudsburg Superintendent John Toleno said. “We wrestle with the staffing side and asking someone like Joe to stay on a football salary, I hold no ill feelings at all.”

Bernard made less than $5,000 coaching football.

On the field, Bernard led Stroudsburg to its second straight Mountain Valley Conference title in 2012, and over two seasons accumulated a 19-5 record.

His only loss in two years of MVC play came at the hands of Pocono Mountain East, a 7-3 loss on Sept. 23, 2011.All the success on the field didn’t parlay into a teaching position for Bernard. He had hoped to be the high school’s next athletic director as longtime AD Beth Ross has announced her retirement at the end of the 2013 school year. In the job description, the school board didn’t want a coach to serve as AD as well.

Bernard realized at that time his future at Stroudsburg was in jeopardy.“I think at times I was misled,” Bernard said. “I was always hopeful that something could work out. Obviously the furlough at the end of the (2012) year caught me way off guard. That’s something no one can control.

“Some of the discussions we did have it became apparent over the last month that it wasn’t going to work out.”

Bernard was hired prior to the 2011 season to take over for longtime football coach Fred Ross. Bernard led the Mounties to a 9-3 record that year and the MVC title.

In 2012, Stroudsburg won 10 games for the first time since 1995. In both seasons, Bernard was the Pocono Record’s Coach of the Year.

“He’s done a great job here,” Toleno said. “He’s a driven person who has done an outstanding job for our kids.”

But the district couldn’t keep one of its most successful coaches because it didn’t have a job in the school.

“You go through being sad, being mad, being frustrated,” Bernard said. “The one thing at the end of the day, it’s about the kids. They have to be resilient and move on.”

Bernard met with the team Monday morning and told them he was resigning. He also told them they had the pieces in place to win a third straight title.“It’s unfortunate I’m not going to be here to see it through,” Bernard said. “I have all the confidence. My fingerprints are all over this program now. They know what to do, they just have to carry it out.”

Toleno said the school will evaluate its options and go forward.

“Our goal is to have someone in place as quickly as possible so there’s no question who is leading the program,” Toleno said.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.